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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Decreased in value? Today I couldn't give away a bunch of Steinway uprights. We need to make room in our shop, and as we like our neighboring rebuilders we thought they might want them. They are in rough, original condition, but I was offering them to professional rebuilders. I thought at least one of them would want at least one of them. I'm still a little shocked. I knew the upright market was weak, but when free Steinways don't spark any interest it implys collapse.Before our economic malaise, we all put out many nice rebuilt uprights. As many as you could, as nicely as you cared to. The market was there for quality at a premium. So I guess we could easily have flooded the local market, and our past work has become our worst competitor. But this never seemed to be the case with Steinways. There was always a demand for those, not always ravenous but never absent.Its like the entire industry is eroding from the bottom up.

If you were in Austin, I would grab one in a heartbeat for DIY tinkering.

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Don, playing the blues in Austin, Texas on a 48" family heirloom Steinway upright, 100 year old 54" Weber upright, unknown make turn of the century 54" upright -- says "Whittier NY" on the plate, Starr, ca. 100 years old full size upright.

We are all familiar with the "cut-down" mirror uprights which we dread seeing,

The equivalent in the UK was the vogue in the 1950s for "modernising" old overdamper pianos. Corners were rounded, inlaid top panels replaced with plain, fancy "trusses" replaced with plain curved legs. And usually nothing was ever done to renovate the action or anything inside. There pianos are now 60 years older, but have casework which fools people into thinking they are 60 and not 130 years old. One customer a few years ago refused to believe me that hers was one of these, insisting that her parents had bought the piano brand new in 1957 (I was brand new that year myself). When I found a 1918 date stamped on the filthy worn-out old action, she was finally convinced.

Generally I'd rather encounter a 130 year old birdcage piano that had NOT been "modernised" that one that has. But prefer not to encounter them at all! (This after a week in which I wrestled with several).

When I sold my previous shop/warehouse building I discarded 18 uprights. Among them were four self players with all the mechanism still intact. I was shocked to find no demand at all from rebuilders on the players. One of Georgia's best reproducer/player restorers told me that he is still doing rebuilds for owners of the players, but he had not done one to sell in years.

Wellington upright made in 1911.Major work by me in 1979.Has iron wound bass which we merely rejuvenated back then.Did dampers, keytops & bushings & bed feltShaped the hammers, bridles, various other stuff.High end refinish job.

In the year 2000 did set of hammers and major repinning.

Played by active church pianist over these years.Now the bass has gone dead again (which really happened at least ten years ago). It has been at standard pitch the entire time. Even the wood upper bridge assembly is still solid and crack free

The family wanted this piano back in 1979. Do you think that, just maybe, it was worth the investment? When I first mentioned the need of new hammers the year was 1993. They finally had them done seven years later. I guess I better mention the need of the new strings right away, huh?!

Changing times indeed....in the 60's-70's, a reproducing Steinway or M&H Grand would go for $30-45K depending on the size. It seems that the folks that were driving that market are fewer due to age etc. The yournger generation is just not that interested in the roll playing reproducers or player pianos. Part of the problem is also the music that is not available. One can only listen to the old music so long before it gets boring. However, in general, the piano is not considered as important as it once was, unfortunetly.

The modern reproducing pianos have a much better chance of making it into homes. A collegue of mine over in England, who owned a Bluthner Grand piano (not a player) from the 1920's, is selling the piano and buying a Yamaha Disklavier Grand. She told me that the Bluthner is not holding it's tuning anymore.

I know of 2 Steinway Reproducing Grands, one an XR and an OR, sitting on their sides in storage, everything original.....they may end up in the dump!~?! ?

The fact that the economy has been in the tank for years(and will be for the forseeable future), as well as there is a saturation of pianos, all contribute to the reason why you can't hardly get rid of a decent used piano these days.(much less sell one for a profit!) Gone are the days of the quick flip! As much as it sucks to be on the sales end of pianos, it is a BONANZA for piano technicians. If you work on pianos for a living, focus your efforts on THAT!

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Making the world a better sounding place, one piano at a time...

A few things have happened last few years. Everyone has been jumping on the band-wagon of you-tube basically committing trade suicide by showing the world how " easy" everything is to do and people are A) A lot more cautious with their money and B) they are tired of being " up-sold" everytime the piano tech comes to service their piano.

I hear this a lot from music studios/churches who are just entirely fed up with ever escalating bills from being over-sold constantly , yet their pianos sound the same or even worse after all the fluff.

I'm still trying to get past why an impovershed family with a 300 dollar spinet piano needs a 1600 dollar concert regulation to play twinkle twinkle little star?. However those guys are out there and sooner or later when the music stops they may not have a chair.